This week has had many twists and turns. Of course Friday (Aug. 24th) was extremely difficult because of Chuckie but I truly felt so close to the Lord that day. I could feel the Savior’s love for me. It was truly incredible. My prayers and heart are with the Floyd family. I pray everyday for them. I hope that everything is okay back home… Phillippians 4:13The highlight of my week has been this Sunday. We watched a talk from Elder Bednar that he gave in Christmas of last year. Here are the quotes that I took from him that I loved so very much.There would have been no atoning sacrifice without the character of Christ. Christ turns out when we turn in. He refers to the “natural man” as cookie monster. “I want cookie now!!” Cookie monster is all me, me, me. We need to turn outward and care about others. Matthew 4:4-11. He says it’s NOT ABOUT YOU, very bluntly. My favorite part that he said was to stay a faithful member of this church you have to be CONVERTED to the Lord. Not a testimony of the church, converted to it. The greatest convert on your mission has to be yourself. Learn OF Christ not about him. The spirit I felt during that talk was just incredible. The best part of turning outward was the story that he told.A nurse had just been told that 3 girls were seriously injured in a car accident, one pronounced dead. They told the nurse that the one that was pronounced dead was her daughter. Immediately she said call the other mothers and let them know that their daughters have been injured. She had just found out that her only child had been killed and she turned outward to others. The second example was that Elder Bednar saw this womans daughter disfigured from the car accident. The mother said, the funeral people did a great job working on her daughter and that she wanted Elder Bednar to come see her daughter before they closed the casket so that that would not be Elder Bednar’s last memory of her daughter, once again turning outward to others not inward to herself. The las example is the most incredible part. On the morning of her daughter’s funeral a complaining relief society member who didn’t know about the daughters death called and said “I am sick and nobody has brought me any food.” On the way to her daughter’s funeral, this mother brought over some food to this sister. She is the perfect example of turning outward. It was such an incredible story. I loved the words that he said. I have grown to love Elder Bednar more than ever.

I am doing great here, just studying and doing my best to learn spanish. I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH! Stay strong. 🙂